Move to Brussels

[Aquatint]

My partner and I just found out we are moving to Brussels this coming summer and working in Evere. We have a 2.5 year old, who only speaks English at present. The company will pay for any school we choose, but we'd also like for our child to have the opportunity to develop French language skills, and ideally become fluent. Finally, we also will would very much like to avoid purchasing as a car as we both loathe driving and prefer taking walking everywhere or taking public transport.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where to live? We'd like to be able to walk to the supermarket, restaurants, and bakery, as well as our child's school if at all possible. Ixelles, Etterbeek, Schaerbeek, and Woluwe seem to be recommended, but have seen some conflicting advice in years past on here, so would welcome any thoughts!

Further, school-wise, given that the big international schools are all a bit outside of the city centre (ISB, BSB, St. Johns), does anyone have any suggestions? Particularly any thoughts on bilingual schools like International Montessori, Brussels International Catholic School, Agnes, etc?

Thank you ever so much!

Cross off ixelles immediately.

Go for anywhere convenient for work. With knowing where work is, hard to advise.

If you wish your child to become fluent in French, with the exception of lycée Francais, it simply won't happen with a private school.

If you want French fluency, go public French.

In 10 years of close contact with children from private schools offering French, not once have I met a child fluent in French from school, parents have claimed their children are fluent in French but then they don't speak French to know.

Will you have a chance to visit before deciding where to live? All the areas you mention are nice but hard to advise a choice really - depends whether you want a livelier or quieter area, greener or more urban, house with a garden or an apartment.

Brussels is well served with public transport so easy with no car - though make sure you live in commuting distance of work.

If you would like the chance for your child to go to school in French then local maternelles are a good choice - generally Brussels has very good schools. The only issue would be getting a place at this stage, more popular schools will already be full for September. You would need to decide where to live quickly and start contacting schools. Children generally start at age 2.5.

Of course private schools have better facilities and so on, but not so easy to integrate or for your child to make local friends. You should also try to visit them to see, however, they could be a great choice for your family!

Chances of a place in maternelle depends on where you live in Brussels. It's pretty easy to get places even when late in WSP, WSL, Auderghem, Watermael-Boitsfort - that includes popular schools.That is exactly why I said to cross off Ixelles, apart from it being nowhere near Evere and not connected very well by public transport. Schaerbeek will also be problematic at this time of year for maternelles, Evere you'd have to get a move on.

Thank you all for your posts, we will likely not have a chance to visit prior to moving. Our plan is to find a school first and a house / apartment after.

With regards to Etterbeek, WSL, and WSP, are there any particular local schools in a relatively urban environment (as mentioned, we want to be able to walk to the market, bakery, restaurants, etc), which have a sizable, international contingent in a safe, affluent neighbourhood? As our French is rather limited at present, we'd prefer a school where the administration is capable (and willing) to speak English with us, at least initially, while we get up to speed linguistically.

Thank you again!

Where is work,?

Every is a bit of a bitch to get to on public transport. Will you be working towards the airport (eg NATO, some of the big companies are also on that road) or nearer to the main part of Evere?

Work is nearish NATO

You need to look at somewhere on the 12 or 22(?) bus route from Schuman then. Or, there are trams about 10 minutes walk from NATO, but I’m not sure where they go! Or go for somewhere on the same metro line as Schuman, so that you can hop on the bus. De Lijn (Flemish buses) also run close to NATO, but this won’t help you if you want to live in a French speaking area.

Re schools, it is unlikely, but not impossible, for your child to become bilingual in a bilingual school, but I have never known it happen in a Brussels bilingual school (happy to be corrected here!). Also look at how long you are going to be working in Brussels. If you’re only there for a few years, your child will forget their French as soon as they are away from a francophone environment, unless you are going to put in a lot of effort to keep it up. That’s not to say, don’t send your child to a French school, just be aware that fluency won’t be maintained.

NATO is now tram connected, so don't look along 12 route. Tram 62 to Meiser, then tram 7/25 goes through Montgomery - to there is about 20 minutes from NATO.

Another good route is 62 tram to Da Vinci then 80 bus which wanders through WSL to Montgomery and further into Etterbeek.

Another good route is 62 tram to Lekaerts then 45 bus which also wanders throug WSL and terminates at Roodebeek metro.

If you look at those 3 routes, that area is mainly WSL but some is Etterbeek, WSP, even Schaerbeek.

I'd avoid Schuman to live because the housing is far higher priced due to proximity of the EU buildings and it will take longer to get there and no private schools and the public schools are going to be difficult at this stage to get places unless you go for les Eburons maternelle.

There are a few public schools I'd look at :
Bonheur
Sacre-Coeur de Lindhout
Divin Sauveur
Angelus
Bemel
Paradis des Enfants
EOS - a Steiner school at Montgomery, very interesting, open evenings soon, small voluntary fees
Singelijn - near Roodebeek metro, lots of kids of NATO/EU, small voluntary fees

As for private schools :
BISB - at Meiser where the 62 tram goes off west, only English
BJAB - at Montgomery, only English
Montessori House Brussels - French / English but very few French speaking kids, very small school so might be full
International Montessori X 2 - a bit north of Roodebeek metro, French / English, might give you a bit more exposure to French, one place does 2-6 only, the other goes to age 18, should have spaces

All those schools are frightfully expensive. They are the 4 I would stick to, for work near NATO.

Having written all that, I think personally I'd be looking at living at 1) within 500 metres of Montgomery metro/tram or 2) easy reach of Roodebeek metro

I've known children keep their French after 3 years here, it's up to you if you end up somewhere not French speaking how much effort you put into it. It's always there though, it's quite a positive, it can be picked up in a later life. Many people stay much longer than a few years, when they initially arrive for a short period.

I'm in a group which has helped many families to move to Brussels. I love house hunting from my laptop. Longtimeinbrussels is the person to contact or you can pm me, as our group is on facebook and it's a secret group.

Take a look at the STIB plan which shows the 62 tram and the connecting trams 7/25 and buses 80 and 45.

www.stib-mivb.be/article.html?_guid=00266bf9-0883-3410-bc80-cd51a4d340c3&l=fr#contentBodyList0

Thank you all so very much! We are digging into the area as I type this.

@lifeisunjust Thank you for all of the school recommendations, the only one I couldn't find was EOS - the Steiner school you mentioned. What does the EOS stand for / is there a different name?

I am starting to look around the Montgomery area / roundabout as it seems to be at the heart of a half dozen good local and international schools.

Ecole orientation Steiner.

We used to live in Schaerbeek. There are better and worse bits of it, I would pick carefully. I'm not sure why the pp said to cross off ixelles, I always thought that was meant to be one of the nice parts of bxl to live in (sure s/he has good reason but just my opinion).

Ixelles is nice, but getting from there to Evere is difficult.

Avenue Louise area is nice

And lack of private schools and hell to get into public schools and location
Ixelles for all these respects sucks and 2nd time I ve written it.

Hi Aquatint, we moved to Brussels last summer. We live in Etterbeek and our kids are at Lindthout school which someone mentioned upthread. We've found the school system here quite old fashioned compared to the UK but throwing our kids into a French speaking school has worked out well - our kids are older but have taken to the language quite quickly. Do please PM me if I can help with anything

I lived just off Avenue Louise with ten minutes to work. It's a nice area. Public transport is so good, reliable.

A bit late with the advice but there is also this school at Montgomery:

www.ecole-montgomery.be/

I agree with elportodelgato in that the school system is old-fashioned. Lots of testing and exams from the age of 6 (though it seems to have mellowed slightly since my 29 and 27 year olds were at school). It's a very academic system though with little room for creativity.

As you have a 2.5 year old, it very much depends on how long you are going to be here and where you are going back to as to which system you should put him or her in. If it's a three year stint and you are going back to the UK for example, your child would be in maternelle for the whole three years and would therefore have done no reading or writing as they don't start until they are six here (and then go at quite a pace so they are not behind their UK peers later on). This would make the transition back to the UK more difficult for them. In this case I would suggest an international school (if you can get the fees paid of course).

However, if you are here long term and would like your child to be fluent in another language then I would consider a Belgian school.
Knowing what I know now though, I would go for one of the alternative schools but that's my personal preference.

As to where to live, I would first suggest trying to live somewhere along the main metro lines (line 1 and 5) but in the East of Brussels rather than the West.

Please feel free to pm me.

Ecole Montgomery starts at age 6 which is why I didn't list it. It will be 4 years before your child could attend :-)

Ah yes i didn’t see that!